“If time is an issue, I think I saw a picture of a cake Stephanie was going on and on about on her Pinterest wall. Something about Princess Kate, and gold leafing. You’ll see it.” He turned to open his door, but bumped into it instead. “You and the Cake Goddess can decide what kind of cake would work best. As long as it isn’t chocolate, it should be fine.” And then, because he couldn’t seem to shut up, he added, “You know, Rhett hates chocolate.”
“I remembered. Say hi to everyone for me…Never mind.” Shaking her head, she wrapped her arms around herself in a protective move. “Forget I said that. Have a good night, Gage.”
Chapter 8
He was being watched.
Gage felt it with every fiber of his being. His body ached as if he’d managed less than a few hours of sleep, and the hot doggy breath on his neck was saying that was all he was going to get.
Littleshit wanted to be fed.
“We’re in a standoff, pal,” Gage said, rolling on his back and putting the pillow over his face. “You’re hungry and I’m exhausted. Maybe if you didn’t keep me up all night with that whining, I wouldn’t feel the need to sleep past breakfast.”
Fancy laid down on Gage’s chest and let out a pathetic whimper. Gage sighed in defeat and eyed the dog. “For a guy who tries to rip people’s fingers off, you sure are needy.”
“Yip.”
“Breakfast. Yeah, I got it when you dragged your bowl in here an hour ago and started acting like I starve you.” Gage tossed back the covers and sat up, his eyes scratchy and irritated.
With a glare that said he wasn’t happy about this arrangement, Gage tucked the dog under his arm like a football and padded to the kitchen.
Fancy panted happily, turning those big wet doggie eyes up at Gage. His expression full of gleeful innocence—as if this hadn’t been
his
plan.
“Don’t get comfortable,” Gage said, as he glanced at the clock over the fireplace. It wasn’t even seven. On Saturday morning. Better than dawn, but not as good as nine-thirty. “One more night, then you go back where you belong, and I get to sleep more than three hours without taking a potty walk.”
Fancy whimpered his apology. Potty walks when one lived in a downtown high-rise meant more than just opening the back door in your underwear.
“Nothing personal, I just don’t share my bed with dogs. And if I did, he’d be a big beast of a thing, with a spiked collar, and jowls, who didn’t force me to put silk sheets on the bed.”
This time his yip sounded more like a defensive yap. And there were definitely teeth involved.
Gage jerked his hand out of bite range. “Hey, all I’m saying is for that much trouble, there had better be a naked woman waiting for me in those sheets.”
So what if the woman he imagined looked a hell of a lot like Darcy, right down to the melt-your-soul eyes and mile-long legs—which would be wearing nothing but a thong and tanned legs in those sheets. If he was showing off his silk, it was only fair she showed off hers.
“Any sane woman would take one look at the state of this kitchen and you’d never get her into the bedroom.”
Margo Easton sat at his kitchen table in a charcoal grey suit, heels, and enough diamonds to accessorize the Grammys, serenely sipping coffee—and folding his clean clothes.
“I was going to fold those.” Gage scowled down at Littleshit, whose nose was tucked securely between Gage’s bicep and chest. “You could have at least warned me.”
Not a single yip in response.
“What are you doing here, Mom?” Gage asked, giving her a kiss to the forehead before pulling the doggie kibble out of the pantry.
“Making my son coffee.” She reached for a pair of boxer-briefs and Gage watched in horror as Margo smoothed them out with her hands, then folded them into a neat little square. “Can’t a mother wake her son up with a fresh pot of coffee and folded clothes?”
Gage looked at the pot on the counter. It was empty. Next to it sat two paper cups boasting the logo from the roasting company in the lobby of his building.
“You brought coffee from downstairs,” he said.
Margo took a sip from the cup she must have snagged from his cupboard. “Your coffee pot is different than mine. All those buttons and levers, I never know what to push. Plus, it doesn’t make blueberry scones. And I know you like blueberry scones.”
His stomach growled on cue, which delighted Margo. “I figured that you must have been starved. Seeing as you missed family dinner last night.”
And the reason for her visit
, Gage thought, setting Littleshit on the floor. He grabbed a pair of folded jeans and a clean shirt still in the basket next to the table and tugged them on. Then he filled a cereal bowl with kibble and set it down. Everyone looked offended. Margo for serving a dog out of a people bowl. And the dog for getting kibble.
“You wanted the good stuff? Then next time don’t leave a brother hanging,” he whispered. To his mom. “Sorry I missed dinner.”
“I was just worried. You haven’t missed a family dinner since college.” Not true. Gage hadn’t missed a family dinner since Kyle died. “With no call to let me know you weren’t coming, I got worried.” Margo rolled his socks and set them pointedly on the table. “So here I am, with scones and coffee, checking on my boy.”
Gage released a breath, the guilt so heavy he took a seat at the table. “I didn’t go to dinner last night because I was dropping off wedding stuff for Rhett at Belle Mont, but I should have called.”
By the time he’d arrived back at his loft, his mind was spinning. He didn’t need a family dinner, he needed time to process. To figure out what kind of role he’d play in Kylie’s life. In Darcy’s. And how it would affect his family.
Gage was a fixer, the glue that held it all together. He’d assigned himself that role when, instead of being there for Kyle, when he’d needed his twin most, Gage had been off licking his own wounds. Trying to wrap his head around that fact that even though the wedding was canceled, Darcy would always be off limits.
This time he intended to keep his focus, and find a way to bring everyone together. Only, a week into his plan and he’d nearly botched it all. He’d been one breath away from kissing Darcy. And kissing his hard won control goodbye.
“She’ll make a lovely bride. Don’t you think?”
“What?” Gage looked up.
“Stephanie.” Margo said exasperated. “Did you hear? Her dress is going to be made by Vera Wang, as a present. Well, of course you didn’t hear, you weren’t at dinner. But it’s going to be lovely. And the cake, my goodness, it will be the talk for years to come. Seven tiers, gold leafing, and the Cake Goddess is making it.”
“That I heard,” Gage said, thinking about the way Darcy had looked, standing beneath the old oak tree in her dress, all buttoned up but nervous as she’d invited him to taste her cakes. Then he remembered how her smile faded when he told her about family dinner.
“You can bet I’m going to be at that appointment.”
Gage froze. “Maybe you should let the love birds go to that one alone.”
“Why would I do that?” She took another casual sip.
Littleshit glanced at the door—looking for an escape. So did Gage, but he willed himself to remain calm. There was no way she knew about Darcy. His brothers had all agreed that they’d wait until Stephanie came back to tell her the news.
“Isn’t that what being engaged is about? Eating free cake and disgusting public displays of affection?” Even as he said it, he couldn’t remember a single time Stephanie and Rhett had engaged in any form of PDA, other than a quick peck.
Then again, they were in the spotlight all the time. Maybe that was their way of keeping some things private.
“Well, that’s a relief,” Margo said. “Here I thought you were trying to keep me away from Darcy Kincaid.”
Gage ran a hand down his face, his stubble rubbing as sharp as his mom’s tone. “Who told you?”
His mother pressed a nonexistent seam out of a t-shirt, then plucked at the sleeve. “Do you really have to ask? Last night was family dinner, and I love your brothers dearly, but they gossip more than my ladies bridge club.”
So much for brotherly bonds. “We were going to tell you when Stephanie got home. We didn’t want to upset you until we knew Belle Mont was completely locked down.”
“Well, if it was for my own good, then who am I to complain?” she said, not looking at him directly. “I guess I should be thanking you.” Clothes forgotten, she stood and walked to put her cup in the sink. “I’ll be going then.”
“Don’t go, Mom.” Gage took the cup from her hand and set it on the counter. “Let me make you some breakfast or at least share my scone while you tell me what you came here to say. Otherwise, you won’t be able to sleep tonight.”
Margo might be a busybody when it came to her family, but her concern originated from a good place. Usually. She was a warm and loving mom, big on hugs as encouragement when Gage had been younger. But after their dad died, her fear of loss made her distant, and the hugs turned into pats on the cheek. And when Kyle died, her interest in her sons’ happiness became a mission.
One she was willing to stop at nothing to secure. Even if it meant burning bridges or driving her sons crazy in the process. And when, one by one, her boys grew up and left the nest, she began to find more creative ways to insert herself in their lives.
Such as impromptu early morning coffee chats.
“It’s nothing,” she said flippantly.
“If it was nothing, you wouldn’t be in my kitchen at seven on my one day off.”
Silence.
“Mom?” Gage leaned against the counter, showing her he had all the time in the world.
“If you must know, it’s that woman! She’s been back in our lives for less than a few weeks. A few weeks!” Margo’s eyes were watery, but fierce. “Already the deceit and lies have begun.”
Margo didn’t do tears. It was an action she couldn’t seem to find the energy for after losing Kyle. But she did guilt like any good Catholic mother—lovingly and with pizazz.
“No one is trying to deceive you,” Gage said, pulling his mom into his arms and resting his cheek on her head. Margo might have the attitude of a rhino when riled, but she only came to Gage’s chest. “Darcy was as surprised to see me as I was her when I showed up for the first meeting.”
“First meeting?” Margo pulled back. “You make it sound like there was more than one.”
At Gage’s silence, she began pacing, her heels clicking on the slate tile as if she were giving voice to every thought racing through her mind. “Secret rendezvous! Missing members at family dinners! Outrageous demands!”
“There haven’t been any rendezvouses.” Although, there had been a brief moment yesterday where it had felt like exactly that. A secret rendezvous, with a special lady, that had the potential for magic. “And if anyone has issued outrageous demands, that would be me. She is letting Rhett rent the venue, working with his security team, and she even agreed to go away for the evening of the wedding.”
Margo laughed. “Of course she did. The girl couldn’t see a good thing through even if it was attached to her glasses.”
“We don’t know what all happened between them. Those were their issues, not ours,” Gage said, and for the first time he didn’t feel like he was betraying Kyle. He felt as if he were defending the mother of his niece. “Darcy has been more than generous.”
With everything.
His mother spun around, her face pale and drawn. “There you go, already taking her side.”
Jesus.
“There are no sides.” Although, right then, he wasn’t sure which side he’d pick. “Stephanie wants to get married at Belle Mont. Darcy owns Belle Mont. Unfortunately, for all involved, Stephanie wants to walk through the rose garden with an Easton.”
Margo clutched her heart, as if Gage has personally invoked a heart attack. “Watch your mouth, Gage Matthew Easton. Stephanie is lucky to land a man like Rhett. He’s successful, charming, honorable—”
“He didn’t seem to mind throwing me under the bus last night at dinner.”
“—loving, and voted one of the world’s sexiest people.”
“I’ll be sure to add that to the list of things to say in my best man’s speech.”
She ignored this. “And Darcy should be honored to host their union. Just like she should have been honored to marry Kyle. But she always wants more.”
“Whoa, Mom, let’s not take this there.” Because
there
is exactly where Darcy was afraid it would go. And watching his mom get all upset and red in the face, he was starting to see her point.
“I will take it wherever I like. That woman will never be happy with what she’s given. It was always more, more, more.” Margo shook a finger. “I blame it on her upbringing. Who could go the distance when they spent their entire formative years moving from house to house? I told her she wasn’t Kyle’s match, and she didn’t fit within our family’s character.”
Gage’s heart literally stopped. “Hold up, you told her that?”
He could only imagine how that must have hurt, especially since Darcy always questioned her own mother’s love for her.
“Of course I told her. Why wouldn’t I? She was complaining about Kyle, saying she wasn’t happy.” She threw her hands up. “Who couldn’t be happy with a man like Kyle? After everything he’d done for her and her standing in the community, and she still wasn’t happy. I chalked it up to a chemical deficiency, but Kyle had made his choice. What was a mother to do?”